Rules & Prizes

Welcome to the April Critique the Community!  This month's theme is "Emotion" and can be interpreted however you see fit. 

Rules 

  1. Each photographer may submit up to three images. 
  2. This month's contest features a pretty broad theme, therefore any type of photograph is acceptable. When thinking about "emotion," make sure your photo clearly gives the viewer a strong feeling, mood, or experience. 
  3. 10 Images will be chosen by Lee and Patrick for the video critique. 
  4. Finally, every image submitted MUST HAVE some written commentary on how the image was created, what gear was used, and some of the challenges you faced when capturing the image. Any photo with a single sentence description will not be included. 

Prizes

First, Second, and Third Place - This month the top 3 images will receive their choice of any Fstoppers photography tutorial found in the Fstoppers Store. Our elaborate and exhaustive photography tutorials not only help photographers immediately start taking professional quality images, but most of our tutorials also share business and marketing techniques that can help make photography a full time income. With genres like Headshots, Landscapes, Architecture and Real Estate, Fashion, Macro, and Product Photography, there is something for every photographer no matter what genre you specialize in. This prize is valued at $299. 

Promotional graphic advertising 50% off discount with code CTC50 at checkout, valid this month only.

BONUS SPRING OFFER


This month we are offering you, our valued community members, the largest single sale on EVERY Photography Tutorial in the Fstoppers Store

From now until the end of the month, you can use the discount code "CTC50" and save 50% on anything in your cart.  We are only offering this sales here to our most loyal Critique the Community members as a thank you for all the support you've given us over the years and for participating each month in these photo contests.  



Good luck to everyone who enters and we look forward to seeing your best "Emotional" photographs!

Thu, 04/30/2026 - 20:00

New submissions are closed.

141 people have cast a total of 2,930 votes on 330 entries from 182 participants

Winners have not yet been announced.

18 Comments

every time. I've submitted my best rated images in several contests and most get a 2.5 in contests.

That’s typical to be honest. Images are being rated in comparison to others, and although some may be strong in their own right they may not align well with the theme of the competition.

Anyone else getting an error when they try to vote? It has been happening for a couple of days. I'm not even uploading a file, just trying to click on the voting stars. I'm using my desktop PC.
The error is:
"The form has become outdated. Press the back button, copy any unsaved work in the form, and then reload the page. An unrecoverable error occurred. The uploaded file likely exceeded the maximum file size (64 MB) that this server supports."

Yes. I was just about to ask the same question. It's annoying. And then when you click on the tab for photos you haven't rated, it shows you all the photos you just rated.

Yeah, I'm getting that, too. It's mega frustrating.

Same, but I have it for like 3 weeks or even more.

Is it me or lately votes are not being stored. Mostly in the general portfolios. I vote ... and when I see the same picture again my vote is not registered.

Sometimes I get a popup spewing some error about not enough memory, and them I cannot cast any votes. But usually I cast them, but they are not registered.

See my reply above. You're not the only one. It's so frustrating.

I've given up on voting. The site has a ton of problems with it's rating system and page loading, yet no one seems to be addressing it after several weeks.

It's disappointing.

Reading the comments below, I can definitely agree. I've gotten a super low rating on a quality photo, but honestly, any time you have the voters be the people you are 'competing' against, that's the trend behavior. Either way, I'm gonna keep dropping these 4 and 5 stars with productive/positive comments.

question to anyone from the age of film...'snapshot' was the ultimate insult for film photography and street photography shots was pretty close... I need to read or happy to discuss what is the craft today... postprocessing is a huge time investment- probably more than messing about in the darkroom-
thanks for the stars folks!

Contest Submissions

Click on the thumbnails below to comment and rate each image.

Click here to learn about the Fstoppers rating system and what each star value means.